Yesterday was quite an exciting day. I got up in the morning and made my way to a ferry on the southern side of Hiroshima city, which I took to Miyajima. Miyajima means “Shrine Island,” and it is only about a ten minute ferry ride from land. The place is gorgeous… just absolutely stunning. Apparently the island is a very important place for Shinto Buddhism, and there are a number of shrines all over the island (as the name implies). Two of the coolest sites to see on the island are the Itsukushima Shrine and its gate, called the Torii Gate. Itsukuhima is a huge shrine that was built over the water. Like the shrine itself, the Torrii gate was also built over the water, so when the tide comes it looks like the shrine and the gate are floating. It’s such an amazing thing to see… really, the pictures barely do it justice. In addition to this huge floating shrine, there are also tons of other shrines all over the island, as well as a couple of huge red pagodas (the pagodas were especially beautiful!). The craftsmanship that went into building all of these things was just breathtaking.
As soon as I got to Miyajima and stepped off of the ferry, I was essentially mobbed by groups of deer and groups of students. Small deer wander the island, including the streets of the town, hoping to get food from visitors, and apparently teachers like to send students out to converse with English-speaking foreigners. Groups of students would come up to me, ask to speak to me, ask to shake my hand, ask to take a photo, and ask me to write something in English for them. It was a very fun and exciting experience the first couple of times, but after my hand started cramping I decided to run into one of shrines to escape. I can’t help but wonder what the teacher is going to say when she sees that all of the groups of students spoke to the same person. Hah!
After checking out a few things on the base of the island, I decided to hike up Mount Misen, the highest mountain on the island. The hike up took me well over an hour, and it was pretty steep in parts. But on top of the island there were several more huge temples, and it kind of blew my mind to realize how much work it must have been to carry all of those building materials to the top of the mountain to construct the shrines. Troops of monkeys were supposedly to be found wandering around the mountaintop, but I didn’t see any.
After I made it to the top of the mountain, I realized that I had made this excursion the hard way: I found out that there is a ropeway, gondola-like thing that stretches from the bottom to the to of the mountain. I should have taken the ropeway up and hiked back down, but I ended up doing the reverse. The good thing about this was that on the ride down, I got to meet Miki. Miki and I were randomly paired in a gondola cart, and I just happened to say out loud (more to myself than to her, because I wasn’t sure if she spoke English) that I was terrified of heights. Well, that was all it took, and Miki and I didn’t stop talking throughout the entire ride. In fact, after we made it to the bottom of the mountain, Miki and I wandered around the island together. We went back to the shrine to see it at high tide, ate “momiji manju” (a local speciality, basically a cake shaped like a maple leaf filled with sweet bean paste), and went souvenir shopping. Miki is a nurse in Fukuoka, and this was the first time she had been to Miyajima since she came with her parents when she was 3 years old. She was planning to visit her cousin and his family in Hiroshima that night, so she invited me to join them all for dinner. I was a little hesitant to accept her offer, because I didn’t know to what extent she was just being kind and to what extent she really wanted me to come along. However, I remembered during my orientation several students said, “If you are ever invited to go out, GO! You never know if you’ll get a second opportunity.” So, I accepted, and Miki seemed very excited.
Around 4:30pm Miki and I made our way back to the mainland, where we picked up her car near the ferry. She drove us back to Hiroshima, where I got to meet her cousin and his family. They were very lovely people. Maya, the daughter, is 7 years old and was pretty much obsessed with the tall gaijin. Ryokyu, the son, is 3, and he is only obsessed with expending as much energy as possible. He reminded me a lot of my 4-year-old nephew.
After hanging out for a bit, Miki, her cousin, and I met one of her cousin’s co-workers at a Yakitori restaurant for dinner. We ate tons of delicious things, most of which I had never had before, and of course drank quite a bit of beer, awamori, and sake. Everyone seemed sincerely amazed by how much I could drink. They asked me “How should we say you are very good drinker?”, and I explained that we say someone who is a good drinker “can hold his liquor.” I did manage to hold my liquor well that night, but Miki and her cousin were pretty drunk by the time we left. The entire experience was so entertaining. I really had a lot of fun. By the time I got back to my hostel, it was nearly midnight and I fell asleep almost instantly.
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